Play Lab - developing and building play chests and project kits to promote creativity in primary schools

A Lab and a Workshop where we will develop, manufacture and distribute Play Chests (full of "Creative Blocks" and other play triggering materials); and design and build kits to develop creative projects, for children in public primary scholls (grade 1 to grade 4).

Where does creativity come from? How do we learn to work as a team? When and how do we start to believe we can do, deliver, create? Like almost everything in life, it starts when we are little: in the opportunities we are given to experience the world and in the feedback we get from the people who pass us by.

Since 2017, we have been actively promoting this path in public primary schools, in Leiria: cultivating children's fertile imagination; leading them to discover solutions, through active play, that give life to those fantastic ideas that once existed only on children's imagination - toys, useful objects, works of art.

In 2018 we introduced the “Creative blocks” (simple wooden blocks that we distribute in classes with a basic statement: “What do you need to create?”). From then on, the “project methodology” gained wings. In some classes, children are invited to create, using their ideas and existing resources. A good idea… right?

The problem is precisely the resources and time to prepare the material base for these projects. On the one hand, the “creative blocks” are scarce, in quantity and, to a certain extent, in quality - as they mainly serve the simplest projects, to initiate dynamics. On the other hand, children's thinking and creativity evolve; and more complex projects emerge! Now, these require thinking, designing and preparing materials - something that is impossible to finance in the current state of public school organization.

Projetos já criados pelas crianças

So now is the time to:

• expand the methodology and distribute materials to all schools where we work;
• study and test, with children, the creation of pre-fabricated kits to make available to future students and other schools;
• disseminate the methodology to all public schools that want to incorporate it - through online training and dissemination of the kits' designes created.

Campaign Objectives:

1. Equip the Workshop with the necessary tools to effectively work wood.
2. Secure the materials needed to craft 6 complete Play Chests (with all the gear inside).
3. Secure the necessary materials to manufacture project kits for the 26 groups we work with, for one year (see schedule) - 52 projects .
4. Study, develop and select, with the children, standardized kits of materials (wood and accessories) that can be replicated in other educational institutions (schools, afterschool services, …) or even in a family context.
5. Disseminate our practice “Project-based Learning" methodology: a) to children - give them a concrete methodology for solving problems, with a base of tools to awaken creativity; b) for teachers - disseminate the methodology, through training, so that they can reach more and more children.

Projetos já criados pelas crianças

Impact:

• The Chests of Play and the methodology (project kits ) will reach around 500 children in the first year of intervention and a further 400 children in the following 5 years.
• In phase 1, we will train 8 teachers, internally (our team); In a phase 2, we will publish the training online, opening it to any interested public school, hoping to reach 30 teachers within 2 years

Principles

• Empowering children - helping them find their creative energy; designing products with and for children, responding to their needs and with an identified use in their lives, in each school community.
• Environmental sustainability of the created object(s) as a starting point for the design process - products that can be dismantled if necessary (reuse of materials); selection of end-of-life or new durable materials; incorporation of a sustainability training component for children.
• Dissemination of good practices - part of the projects will become kits that can be replicated by the school community; the methodology will be codified and disseminated so that other teachers in other educational communities can implement it.

Projetos já criados pelas crianças

About the author

Brincar de Rua is a social innovation program promoted by Ludotempo - Associação de Promoção do Brincar , a non-profit association based in Leiria.
In addition to the community Brincar de Rua program - which developed a crowdsourcing methodology to promote space and play time for children in the neighborhoods where they live - we have developed, since 2017, the Brinca de Rua Escolas program, in which we carry out Curricular Enrichment Activities (an afterschool program in public primary schools) for 26 classes in Leiria, Portugal. In addition, we develop outdoor learning activities, aimed at children and families; and promote ongoing training for education professionals, also in outdoor learning themes.

Budget and due dates

What will we spend the money raised on:
The amount raised will cover:

1. Expenses for materials for creating the chests and project kits.
2. 260 hours of research and product development work + manufacturing of Play Chests and project kits.
3. The necessary investment in tools for product development.

Note: Current space expenses are covered by loaning space to the association.

Summary of expenses/investments

• Power tools > €4,009.79
• Hand tools > €427.66
• Organization tools > €470.99
• Consumables (wood, glues, screws,...) > €4,306.97
• HR (260 working hours) > €2,685.42
• PPL commission (7.5% + VAT) > €1209.49

Complete detailed budget available here : https://bit.ly/orcamentoLabFAZ (spreadsheet on google drive)

Plan/Schedule
12 months to create materials (Research and Development); a life to continue to impact the children of the Brincar de Rua community.

• Until March 2024 - acquisition of tools and materials.
• Until June 2024 - Create and distribute a complete Play Trunk for each of the 6 schools in AE D. Dinis
• Until July 2024 - Structure the project methodology and disseminate it to all classes; develop at least 1 project with each of the 26 Group Classes.
• From September to November 2024 - design and execute a new round of projects with the 26 classes. Select kits.
• December 2024 - Select, with the children and the Brincar de Rua community, which projects to convert into Kits to be introduced in future school years by the schools in the Group and by other public schools that wish to integrate the methodology. Design and implement the kits; public presentation of pre-made final kits. Publish online training for teachers from other school communities. Present the business plan that will define the financial sustainability of the project in the future.

Images